Elder Matria, Keeper Retak, and a few other important persons I didn't know saw us to the Sheikah's separate Death Mountain path. It was a short trek though a lightly wooded area, and after a formal goodbye we were off. Our brisk and silent morning trek started off enjoyable; the path still only gradually inclining. Though we'd been assured the grapping hooks we'd been provided would be handy soon enough.
The vegetation at the mountain base had me most peaked. I'd only ever seen the mountain looming from Auntie Malon's house before, never having a reason to climb it. I saw the volcano as a mass of red rock jutting from the ground, ring of smoke drifting around its peak. I'd never seen the trees here, or thought there would be any sort of forest growing in the red earth. They were different then the trees and plants of Faron, so I studied them as we climbed.
"What are you doing?" Kage asked as I stopped before a tree with high leaves and a white, spotted trunk.
I had a hand on the tree's base, admiring it, so it took me a moment to process that I'd been spoken to. I jumped and scooted towards him. "Sorry! I've just never seen trees like that. There are a lot of neat plants here."
"Suppose your curiosity being an Earth Mage is…sprouting." I rolled my eyes at his horrible pun as he snorted. "That's a birch tree. Its bark is really useful, and the Sheikah come up here to gather it often. It's waterproof and very malleable, so it's used to make traditional canoes and crafts. One of the more useful plants up Death Mountain."
"You sure know a lot about the Sheikah. Even their language."
"I'd hope so. I studied their culture for years at home; as future diplomat one has to know a lot about the different cultures they serve. Probably helped that Impa made sure to teach me about all things Sheikah herself… But you best be careful; some flora up here might be useful, but is dangerous."
"Like poisonous plants?" I felt suddenly glad that the forest was starting to dissipate as the terrain grew rockier.
"Not exactly," Kage answered, offering his hand to me to help me up a large, smooth rock that impeded us. Looked like the trail was devolving into less and less of a path already. "No, you should be weary of-" He looked around after pulling me up. "-Ah. Those right there." He pointed in the distance.
Sitting in a cluster was a group of shrubs, wide, green leaves at their base, large blue blub-shaped petals growing up from them. The topper was straw-coloured, long tip of hair-like antennae poking from each blub.
I knew what those were from my textbook. "Bomb flowers?"
"Yep. Don't have long until they blow if you disturb one, so if you hear sizzling best get away quick. They are hard to de-root, but better to stay clear of them if you can. They're helpful to the Gorons for their mining so they let them grow everywhere. Unfortunately for most us other races, we don't have thick enough skin to protect us from their blasts like they do."
"Huh." I considered what I knew of the creatures, knowing their backs had a thick rocky hide but not realizing their whole skin was so durable. I smiled. "It'll be neat to meet the Gorons. I can't say I've interacted with many. Occasional shop keepers, but that's about it."
Kage raised a brow. "What about the Zoras, then?"
"Well, I didn't know too much in-depth about their culture, I'll admit," I explained as I hopped up a row of smaller rocks to catch up with Kage's longer strides, "But we had a family of them from Castle Town who were regular customers of ours. They ran that big spa in town? Their youngest son Fillan would help me unload the crates and was kinda chatty. When they ordered from us it was usually a lot, since they had milk baths for high-end customers. Wasn't open all season, but dad always got a lot of business from them when it was. So that made him happy…" Goddesses, I wondered how they were all doing? Mrs. Japas was so nice; she'd even offered me a complimentary massage treatment once. It'd been heavenly. My chest rippled as I wondered how many of the large family was still alive.
"You mean the Jabun Sanctuary Spa, don't you?" Kage nodded with enthusiasm. "I know it. I've been a bunch of times; all the family has. Dad loves that milk bath, once he even-" Kage's face fell. "Well…yes. It's a great place."
We stumbled upwards in a stretched silence. I grimaced at Kage's stony look, unsure what to do-
Ow! I felt a little zap on my chest. Way to be subtle, Navi!
But I got it.
I grabbed his hand but couldn't look at him. He stopped.
"Sarah?"
"I just…I just wanted you to know like what you told me yesterday. I'm here for you if there's anything you wanna talk about, whenever you want to talk about it. Okay?"
"Thanks Sarah." Kage said. A pause. "I appreciate it, really. I'll be okay for now. But you think I can have my hand back? Or it'll make this next part hard."
"Huh?" I looked up to see what he meant.
Oh. Just before us was a jagged, nearly vertical ledge. Time to bring out those grapping hooks…
We had a hell of a time with those climbs. The only luck was no wall was too high, so we reached all of their tops with our hooks. Kage was excited he managed to reach the taller ones in only a few goes, saying he felt me showing him how to lasso all those weeks ago had helped his aim. Afterward countless breathers and ledges the path finally reappeared and spread out gradually again. The sun was directly above us now, so we agreed to eat and relax our aching muscles (my left arm felt especially tender). I took Navi out of my pocket to sit and enjoy the breeze before hungrily diving into lunch.
I overviewed the sight before us while chewing on some jerky. Goddesses, we were so high up already! The houses of Kakariko proper were in view, and they were just a mix of mini multi-coloured rectangles. I could see the river we came in on, boats still specks sitting on it, too far to look like they moved. It was sort of unnerving to see the edge of the path in front of us, and how quickly (and far) the drop was.
Kage however, was looking up, not down. He drank from his bottle with a sober expression.
"Navi, have you ever been to Death Mountain before?" He asked suddenly.
"Oh, uh, yes actually. Though I've only been up from the normal path. It's probably really different now. Why?"
"…Was the smoke that dark when you were here?" He nodded to the ring above the mountain.
I frowned and gave it a good look myself. Everyone knew the stories of Death Mountain's ring of smoke. If all was well on the volcano the ring of smoke was ashen and fluffy. When there was turmoil on its slopes, it became unnatural and raging.
"U-umm," The fairy stuttered. "I was here twice before. The first time, it was a light ring. Though there was some trouble with Dodongos, but me and Link helped exterminate them." She explained. So Navi must have heard the legend too. "The second time…an evil dragon was resurrected, and threatened the Gorons extinction. That was a far more serious problem to overcome and…the mountain's ring of smoke was on fire. So I don't know if slightly darker is bad, but it does seem a bit off."
My mouth dropped. "Navi, are you talking about the ancient magma dragon Volvagia?"
"You've heard of him?" Her voice was as full of shock as my own.
"Y-yeah, but that's a super old legend. I've only found it mentioned in a few history books in the Library, since most scholars dispute the existence of such a beast-"
"What's the story, Sarah?" Kage interrupted my ranting.
I bent my head and held my brow, trying to arrange the whole segmented story and theories I'd read about. "It was…many millennia ago, a dragon was born from Death Mountain. Legends say the force of its birth turned the at-the-time Mountain into the volcano it is now. It was worshiped as an envoy of some sort of tribal gods believed in at the time, I think. They made sacrifices to those gods, the tribe, and so they sacrificed enemies and travellers to the dragon for many centuries. After awhile Gorons came to the mountain. After a sacrifice of one the dragon developed a taste for them, demanding only Gorons as food. The ancient Gorons fought back obviously, and overran the tribe that lived there. But the dragon still hunted them itself, until one Goron forged a magic hammer. With it he finally killed the beast. He's the one who named it Volvagia I think. It meant like 'Demon defeated by Vol', or something kinda silly like that, in old Goronish."
I scratched my head trying to get this next part right. "I'm pretty sure that legend said something about the smoke of Death Mountain being related to Volvagia's death, but I can't remember that bit exactly. But even after that…" I glanced up at Navi. "The stories say something brought Volvagia back once, and it trapped all the Gorons in order to eat them as revenge. The Goron Chief died confronting it…but he'd directed a Hylian man to find the magic hammer, and the man found it and defeated Volvagia again. But Navi-" She'd been watching me rapt all this time. "-that part of the legend happened nearly a thousand years ago itself!"
"So it's really been that long…" she sighed.
"But it's true, at least the second part?" Kage asked the fairy. "The Link you travelled with actually fought Volvagia? The dragon's real?"
"Y-yeah. It was, anyway. And the Megaton Hammer too."
Kage gave a low whistle. He glanced back up at the smoke through his knit eyebrows. "Here's hoping there isn't another resurrection in Volvagia's future…"
"Well, Hyrule's going through a resurrected Dark King right now," I added through a constricting throat. "I-I'd bet, considering how openly the Gorons opposed that, the mountain can sense some coming threat. But that's one of the reasons we're here, right? So you can hero your way to their safety, like we did with the Zora's. And the ring isn't on fire, sooo…that's promising, right?"
Kage tore his eyes from the darkened ring and to the bottle in his hand. "I suppose… Though it doesn't answer another abnormality I noticed during our climb."
Navi tilted. "What was that? I didn't sense any danger."
"That's just it. Last night the Elder warned me the climb, especially around the ledges, was a favourite spot of Tektites. The Shiekah don't need to use grapples with their transportation abilities, so she cautioned to keep an eye out for them, lure them down and dispose of any before we began climbing. They like to ambush from above. But there hasn't been a single one."
"That's not horrible though. It made our trek safer." I kept trying to bring the positives to light.
Kage looked me dead in the face. "But if the monsters aren't here…what could they possibly be hiding from? Some greater threat?"
I didn't have an answer to that. I contemplated as I chewed my food.
I wanted it to be the Gorons, trying to make their mountain safer. If it wasn't that I hoped we didn't find out what it was.
Though most of the vertical scales were behind us the mountain offered little relief. The sun was warm, no shade in sight. I found it harder and harder to keep my lungs full enough. Man, I felt so out of shape! Though Kage was panting too, awkward rocky sections we had to carefully hop, jump and clamber over being more tiring then the grapple ledges.
There were also some thinner sections of path, and while I probably didn't need to I made sure to be pressed up against the stone and shuffle along it. My chest thumped at the first instance, where I made the mistake of looking down. I quickly resolved not to do that again. I shook a bit but gulped down hard, reasoning if Kage was doing this ahead of me I could do it to. Though I did wish he moved a little quicker through those parts. He seemed to slow down drastically, but it was probably just my nerves talking.
Finally we reached another wide area with no bumpy rocks to tumble on. It was just after a thin section, so I felt my chest widening itself as I spotted it. I jogged inward, away from the edge, keeping a fair gap between a cluster of bomb flowers in my way.
"Phew…" Kage's voice carried a hint of a waver, making me suspect it wasn't only me who disliked the narrow parts. "Want a water break? Looks like there's some shade up ahead."
I nodded, parched. We both walked inwards, slightly off the vague path, toward where a higher outcropping of rock provided a canopy from the sun. I sighed as I uncorked my water bottle and gulped down glorious water. After a whine from my pocket I took Navi out once more and sat her beside me.
We sat in silence, worn from the day. We had to be close to Goron City now; it was nearly evening and the Elder said it was a daylong trek. I lent back and closed my eyes a moment…
"Umm, guys?"
"Mmmm, Navi?" I asked, not moving.
Silence.
"What's up, Navi?" I asked again.
An echoing roar answered me.
"GUYS, UP! MOVE!"
My eyes snapped open as I felt a tremor. Kage's hand was on his sword and he was jumping to his feet. As I sat up I saw it.
In front of us was a Dodongo, turning towards us from jumping down the shade-baring ledge.
It hissed as I sprang to my feet, while Kage called, "Move, MOVE!"
I ran forward, drawing my own blade. I'd never seen a Dodongo before-it was huge! I yelped and jumped from my running as another cry called on my right. Shit! Two more were crawling down the side of the canopy towards us!
Kage had run down the opposite side of our first dinosaur, and the other two were slow in their pursuit. I heard him attack the first with a clang to its leg. It seemed to have no effect.
Well, other then to make it angry.
It sucked in a large breath and I knew what was coming next.
"Run!" I called, desperately doing so myself as the beast bellowed fire in his direction.
He rolled away just in time.
The creature paused, having spent its entire breath in the attack. "Kage their skin is too thick for normal blades!" Navi called from under the outcropping, trying desperately to get in the air and fly over. "Their mouths or tails! Aim there!"
At that, the Dodongo flicked its tail around dangerously, Kage having to jump aside again to dodge it.
Damn! How were we supposed to target either of its weak spots when its mouth was full of fire and its tail was a deadly whip?
Our two stragglers had finally caught up. The first thing they noticed was the bobbing, glowing Navi in the shade.
SHIT!
I ran back towards her. "Navi, stay down, watch out!"
Both paused, inhaling deeply...
No, NO!
I skidded in front of her right before it happened.
There wasn't any time. I covered her with my body and waited half-a-breath for the inevitable end.
"SARAH! NO!"
The two Dodongos released their flames on me.
